In its own niche, Orcs Must Die! 2 is king. You may not be inclined towards tower defense games, but in this genre, the three-dimensional approach (your ability to use the walls and ceiling, to place down guardians, forming synergy between traps and character spells), the attractive graphics and the fast-paced gameplay are way above any other similar title.

Ultimately, Endless Space can be a fun experience, even though I disliked the superficial combat mechanics and the skinny tech-tree. Yet the game's biggest problem is the low replay value, with each game being eerily similar to the previous one, which is not a very bright point for a 4x strategy.

It truly deserves applause for the courage to confront us so harshly with our own character, even if our choices sometimes seem forced or useless. But if it could have found another way, less tiresome and monotonous, to let us get to them, it would have had substantial chances to become a classic.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is no exception, and the small unaesthetic or functionality mishaps don't change the basic fact that it's a well-done title, with multiplayer modes that will probably be played long after the campaign credits scroll down your screen.

But yes, I do recommend it to anyone passionate about spatial puzzles that require switching dimensions (and more). Some of its shortcomings, like the platforming sequences, could be regarded as relative, because some people will be better than others at appreciating distances and the moments at which they need to react.

But just as its predecessor, it remains a game sentenced to struggle on the line between interaction and presentation, a space where compromises must be made by at least one of the sides, with the game proper still taking the larger hit. Because when it comes to its interaction degree, Alan Wake really doesn't have much more than a flashlight, a gun and, occasionally, a flashbang.

It takes a lot of patience, curiosity and dedication to the A Song of Ice and Fire universe to get over all the problems that undermine the game and enjoy its only quality: the story. Perhaps some fans will feel it's worth the effort, but most RPG gamers will want to skip this disappointing tie-in.

Far from being a relic of a forgotten era and way more than an ordinary game where you shoot strangers online, it's a very tough test, one in which you need to have your wits with you. Because Tribes: Ascend is the Zen FPS par excellence.

The difference between Diablo III and II isn't as big a leap as the previous iteration, but again, nobody can say it's a surprise. The modern Blizzard plays it a lot „safer" and they've mastered that art. The final product, however, was lighter than I expected and a lot more shallow in points where I'd hoped for more from one of the biggest juggernauts in the videogame industry.

Similarly to Civilization V, combat elements are the most evolved and those of you who favored that particular battle system will get right down to business, helped a lot by the map's visual familiarity. The positioning of units on hexagons allows for attacks from multiple directions and, just like in the eternal source of inspiration, in the lower left you get an approximate report of a fight together with any bonuses given by unit type or terrain type.

Binary Domain took inspiration from many places, but didn't manage to gather those ideas into a shell that goes beyond a decent coherence; the story is ridiculously clichéd, the dialogues are passable at best and the Trust and voice systems aren't exploited enough to really matter. Just the boss fights are somewhat fun, but ultimately it depends if you have enough patience to face the tons of (s)crap just for the thrill of taking down such huge metallic monsters.

The matter is simple – the game is free to play and, if you take my word for it, an excellent shooter. In a perfect world, it would knock the CoD series on its ass. Of course, in a perfect world its name wouldn't be Blacklight: Retribution and in a perfect world, it would have better ballistics and the graphics would be equally as good on all lanes.

Actually, Bugbear missed pretty much all its marks: destroying opponents isn't as fun as the Burnout takedowns; ruining the city has nothing of the adrenaline and the real danger and satisfaction from Split/Second; drifting is one more stress factor and the decision to dominate races is motivated by the points and not by the thrill of the competition. So while this mix is theoretically perfect, in reality it's just not good enough for you to spend too much time in Shutter Bay.

Even so, Rayman: Origins is the best designed, most accessible, vast, gameplay rich and fun platformer that I've played in a very long time. It's nothing short of a Nintendo A-list (which I still think of as the best platforming game developer ever to have graced the market) and could be the beginning of a beautiful series.

So Wargame: European Escalation isn't revolutionary, but it can hold its own against current strategy games and has a community with a passion for war that goes beyond history books and Discovery documentaries.

Yet as a finished result and, finally, as a product with an interactive purpose, Alan Wake suffers enough from trying to mix so many influences, ending very close to the "you love it or hate it" model. Eventually, maybe these are just the "pains of childbirth" for something more complex or for something else as deserving as interactivity, a new „species" that needs to be judged less for its interactive aspects and more for the ones that regard its style.

The Darkness II is indeed short, but it does achieve part of its goals: a few fun hours for a rainy spring afternoon, with some interesting characters, a dark story and, most of all, two demonic arms always hungry for beating hearts.

Thus, I can't recommend buying this unless you (still) like the fast pace, the customizable weaponry and the short matches, of about 10 minutes each. With the very important mention that, essentially, nothing has changed.

So after going through John Yesterday's amnesiac adventures three times in the row, the game is a journey with which I really want to be indulgent, although mediocrity follows it every step of the way. It's not a complete mess, but everything it does has already been done by others and much better.

The short duration of the adventure is balanced by the constant number of puzzles and the fact that they had to be designed for solo and co-op play. But the first time you fire up Trine 2, the best way to do it is with patience and taking time to contemplate the scenery.

Ultimately, Revelations leaves behind a bittersweet taste: it's the end of a saga (or two, depending on how you view things) and integrates fairly well in the timeline of the series, but... it's nothing more than a detour that answers a few questions, not an actual step forward.

So that's the story of Mass Effect 3, turned from potential masterpiece into a game sabotaged by greed and the „it's good enough" approach. It's unbelievable how easy BioWare passed over the opportunity for greatness and, despite the sales, I have a feeling that their reputation as great RPG makers is going downhill fast. Especially after this "back to back" performance with the fiasco called Dragon Age II.

It's too short, too small in many ways and way too conventional in a market oversaturated with AAA alternatives. Alternatives which last longer and offer competitive modes, not just a few dozen hours of co-op runs in which you can't point anything out to your teammates unless everyone has a microphone for the game's VoIP.

So in the post-Call of Duty/Battlefield/Team Fortress 2 world of today, Nuclear Dawn will not have an easy time finding a safe place, not only because of the risk it has taken as a genre combination, but mainly because of the work that the FPS side still needs.

It's all a matter of taste, after all. They each provide a certain type of entertainment – when talking about Battlefield 3, it involves a bigger game, more open in its possibilities and more spectacular. But on a longer timeline, less frantic and with fewer Bruce Willis scenes than the mass appeal beast it set itself to dethrone.

Ultimately, whether you like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning or not depends on what you want from an RPG: a special story and endless hours of reading or spectacular action, tons of items and great hero customization, but at the expense of the narrative.

Though the ending is surprising, in a way, the story isn't the main focus of Batman: Arkham City. Exploring and adventuring come first, you have so much to do that you that the hours just slip by you. Yes, the boss fights are probably too easy, the narrative too short, the framerate goes down on occasion and not all the players will appreciate searching through every nook and cranny to find trophies. But it's all up to you and Arkham City offers a variety that not a lot of new games have nowadays.